July 16, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
61 
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From Stillwater Camp. 
Jersey City, July 4. — Editor Forest and Stream: We 
were the happy recipient of a nice mess of mountain trout 
Tom the game reserve of St. Lawrence county, New 
York, being a small part of the result of the skill of Dr. 
Geo. J. Hornung and his wife. Dr. Hornung, you will 
remember, is a member of the Wells-Bird Reserve Game 
(Association, and we were with him at Stillwater Camp 
■during the deer season last fall. The fine head of a five-, 
■point buck graces the rooms of the Sit-down Club in 
■Jersey City, and is a trophy of the doctor's skill. .The 
Irirctor and his wife spent a week on the reserve in June, 
mnd they had fine fishing. It is a question who caught the 
■most (rout, the doctor or his estimable wife. Mrs. 
iHornr.ng enters into all the outdoor sports of her athletic 
■husband with the vim and intelligence of no novice; she 
I:an throw a fly, handle a Winchester, or paddle a canoe 
■with the best amateur. 
I Mr. Spear, president of St. Lawrence County Bank, 
land one of the incorporators of the preserve, has recently 
■added 10,000 more acres to the game preserve, making 
■some 40,000 acres in all, abounding in deer and the finest 
■of trout brooks. We saw few grouse. 
Dr. Hornung knows not only how to lure the fish to his 
■bred, but also the secret of preserving them. His rule is, 
I f course, disemboweling (this often on the brook), being 
i:areful never to sever the head or let the body touch 
■water. Place the fish on leaves or moss or a cloth, then 
Ic n or near ice, and in this way they will keep for days. 
■Upon coming home, wash the fish and wipe dry, and they 
■will be found to be firm and of full flavor, reminding one 
lot" the babbling brook and balsam groves of the distant 
■woods. 
I When we were sojourning in the early sixties on the 
■Beaver Meadow T S of Warren county, New York, Mrs. 
Ijacobstaff had a way of capturing trout for breakfast of 
■mornings when her husband was at work, and when a 
■successful catch of big ones would appear, say 1 or 1.^4 
■pounds, she would put in a shallow pan in rich cream and 
■bake, and they were delicious. She much preferred good 
Isweet oil to butter for the frying-pan. Is there anything 
|in the wide vocabulary of the culinary department equal 
to a fresh fontinalis properly presented ? 
Young Geo. Hornung — a true chip of the old block — 
WHERE THE BIG ONES HIDE. 
left for the preserve on his vacation last week to remain 
a few months ; Mrs. Hornung will follow with her 
daughter and younger son during the present month for 
the summer in camp, and the doctor will be on hand in 
j October, when the deer season opens. They will all have 
a good time, we opine. James O'Brien, the able and re- 
liable guide of the second camp, will atend with grace and 
efficiency to the wants of Mrs. H., while the old veteran, 
Arven Eastman, will see that the genial doctor does not 
want for one shot or more if necessary at' the fleeing 
ce r vus. 
We know that Jacobstaff will receive his quota of the 
rich result of the outing. 
Ore of the photographs shows a. canoe built by Mr. 
R-'shtr-n. of Canton, who is a member of the Stillwater 
CI up. ''"he club has some fifteen of these canoes of Rush- 
Jon build, and they are good ones, Mr, Rushton's latest 
canoes are the Adirondack Boy and the Adirondack Girl ; 
light as thistle blows, they draw but two inches of water. 
Jacobstaff. 
Salmon Culture in America. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of July 2, under the heading "Fish Chat," 
your intelligent contributor, Mr. Edward A. Samuels, 
pays some rather doubtful compliments to the writer. 
While stating that he "would have no controversy what- 
ever with The Old Angler," he endeavors, by hearsay evi- 
dence to throw doubt on the statements made by him 
from his own personal knowledge, and from the most 
authentic documents, namely, the Blue Books of the 
Fisheries Department of Canada and the Reports of the 
State Commissioners of New York, Connecticut, Massa- 
chusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. 
Mr. Samuels is a charming writer, as all can testify 
who have enjoyed his fascinating book, "With Fly-Rod 
and Camera," and his numerous contributions to your 
columns. He is master of a fine descriptive style, and 
writes of angling as one who pursues a fine art and appre- 
ciates and enjoys all its surroundings. He is a true 
woodsman, and is familiar with the blackened timber of 
our forests, with our smoky Indians, our racing streams 
with their right-angled log-jams, their bars of sun- 
warmed shingle, and the click of shod canoe-poles, and 
he knows the difference between a couch of new-pulled 
hemlock and one of coarser and less fragrant spruce. 
In most things connected with sport, The Old Angler 
is ready to defer to his younger brother ; but on the sub- 
ject of salmon culture in the Dominion of Canada and 
in the Northern States, he thinks he may, without arro- 
gance, claim that he has had superior opportunities of 
knowing the facts, and has devoted more time and atten- 
tion to their study, not as mere dilettantism, but as a 
matter of official duty. 
While I fully share Mr. Samuels' disinclination to enter 
into any personal controversy, I am very desirous that 
real facts, and not mere loose hearsay reports, should 
guide the judgment of those who have been "led to be- 
lieve that the artificial stocking of our rivers is not only 
feasible, but absolutely necessary." Therefore I am in- 
duced to state the facts in all the cases cited by Mr. 
Samuels under the head "visible results." 
In the case of the Merrimac River, in which the fish 
commissioners of Massachusetts and New Hampshire have 
planted so many hundred thousands of salmon fry, there 
is not, so far as I can find from the reports of these com- 
missioners, a particle of evidence to show that the few 
fish now occasionally seen in that river are the progeny 
of the fry planted. Ever since the dams were made 
passable to salmon, a few have ascended from the estuary. 
The late Professor Spencer F. Baird assured the writer 
that salmon were never "totally exterminated from that 
river," and he expressed the strongest hopes that artificial 
culture would restore its stock ; at that time I fully shared 
these hopes. Thirty years have since passed, and so far as 
can be learned from the commissioners' reports, no prac- 
tical results have been produced. The estuary yields no 
salmon to the net fisherman, nor does its upper waters 
yield any to the angler. These reports are easily obtain- 
able by Mr. Samuels or by any one who wishes to know 
the truth. To these I commend their careful study. 
In the Penobscot River, in Maine, the conditions never 
were ' almost exactly the same" as obtained in the Merri- 
mac. Ever since salmon fishing in the estuary and mouth 
of the Merrimac ceased to be profitable, a very consider- 
able annual catch has been made in the lower reaches of 
the Penobscot. Thirty years ago the writer pointed out 
to the late Commissioner Stillwell that nothing but exces- 
sive fishing in these lower reaches prevented the upper 
waters from giving good sport to the angler. Since the 
brush weirs and nets have been reduced, larger numbers 
of fish have reached the upper waters, and from their 
progeny, not from the small number of fry planted, has 
the stock increased. But even now, with all the ex- 
perience, of the past to guide them, the commissioners still 
allow excessive netting, and angling is allowed from April 
until September. There is not a particle of evidence that 
the increased stock came from the fry planted, while there 
is almost absolute demonstration that to the clearing out 
of the brush weirs and to the reduced netting is the im- 
provement due. 
Of Port Medway, Middle River, and Margaree, in Nova 
Scotia,. the writer can speak with more confidence, for these 
rivers and all others in that Province came under his im- 
mediate observation in the course of his official duties. In 
Port Medway there were more salmon taken illegally in 
187^ than were legally taken in 1902, and I am wholly 
unable to understand what Mr. Samuels means to convey 
by the words "the story is the same" applied to this river. 
Surely he does not believe that salmon were ever "nearly 
exterminated" in Port Medway ! It is quite true that be- 
fore confederation, when the Nova Scotia law was very 
loosely enforced, but few salmon got up the poorly 
constructed fishways in the dams, and that many of them 
that reached their spawning places were speared by In- 
dians. When the Dominion^ fishing laws were enforced, 
and local guardians appointed, the dams were made more 
easily passable, and wholesale slaughter below them was 
stopped. To better protection much more than to the in- 
significant number of fry planted, is due the preservation 
of this fine river. But the fact remains that the annual 
catches show a steady decrease, while the contrary should 
be the case if the planted fry reached maturity and 
propagated. 
I do not know on what authority Mr. Samuels makes 
the statment that twenty-five years ago not a salmon ex- 
isted in Middle River; but I do know that when I last 
visited it officially, twenty-six years ago, I had fresh sal- 
mon for breakfast and dinner, which the warden told me 
was caught in the mouth of the river, about a mile distant. 
In all probability more fish ascend the river since the law 
has been better enforced; but there is not the slightest 
proof that the paltry number of fry planted in it has had 
anything to do with the improved angling which Mr. 
Samuels reports. On that occasion I also visited the Mar- 
garee in Cape Breton. At that time it was, indeed, netted, 
speared and seined to desolation; but so great was the 
stock even then that not a year has passed since when 
fair angling was not found in some of its splendid pools. 
Perhaps no river in the Dominion can be named that owes 
its preservation from total destruction entirely to the pro- 
tection the enforcement of the fishing laws has afforded. 
It is also the only river I know in which salmon are now 
as plentiful as they were forty years ago, and yet the total 
number of fry turned into it is absolutely insignificant — 
about equal in number to the ova of fifty mature fish. 
Mr. Samuels' mention of Dunk River in P. E. Island 
is most unfortunate. He must be wholly unacquainted 
with the facts, which are the exact opposite of those he 
gives. Forty years ago Dunk River had a fair stock of 
salmon for so small a stream. So far from anglers being 
"scared out of a year's growth by the capture of a salmon 
in its waters," they resorted to it for the express purpose 
of being "scared," and were very seldom disappointed. 
In 1880, when the island had the Minister of Marine and 
Fishing in the person of the late James C. Pope, a salmon 
hatchery was established on Dunk River, which still had 
its small stock of salmon. This hatchery was operated 
eight years, and 6,145,000 fry were planted in its waters. 
So far from any increase in the number of fish resulting, 
the record shows an astonishing decrease. In the sixth 
year of its operation ova sufficient to produce 1,100,000 
fry were procured. In the seventh year but 500,000 fry 
were produced, and in the eighth year but 400,000. The 
parent salmon were becoming so scarce and so difficult to 
procure that the. hatchery was abandoned. If, as Mr. 
Samuels informs us, it has since become a fairly good 
11 
ON THE DEAD WATER OF DE GRASSE RIVER. 
salmon stream, the fact goes far to show that the fish will 
do better without any artificial assistance beyond reason- 
able protection. 
The only semblance of argument put forward by Mr. 
Samuels is contained in the paragraph headed, "If these 
streams had not been stocked?" and that is so purely 
negative as to be worthless. He writes : "Now, while it 
may be, and probably is, true that The Old Angler is 
right when he states that the catch of salmon has lessened 
annually since the practice of artificial propagation began" 
[the evidence of this was given by figures from the Blue 
Books of the Department of Fisheries], "it seems plain 
to me that the decline is not attributable to the practice; 
but if no efforts had been made to keep up the stock, the 
catch would have lessened much more quickly than it 
has." In all that The Old Angler has written on this sub- 
ject, not a w° r d can be found which conveys the idea 
